Music Hall group: We'll just rent it

Jun. 22, 2012

Music Hall / Enquirer file photo

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Ending a stalemate over the fate of one of Greater Cincinnati’s iconic buildings, a group hoping to revitalize Music Hall late Friday backed down from demands that it buy the building from the city.

The Music Hall Revitalization Co. submitted a proposal to the City of Cincinnati on Friday to lease the historic 134-year-old hall from the City for 99 years in order to move forward with its $165 million renovation project.

The nonprofit group has asked that its proposal for a long-term lease between the city and the Revitalization Co. be placed on the agenda of the city’s Budget and Finance Committee on Monday. The proposal will allow the nonprofit to move forward, the group said in a statement sent late on Friday to Music Hall supporters.

“Without this agreement, the revitalization simply can’t happen,” said Otto Budig, Jr., the arts patron and businessman who took over as president and board chair of the Revitalization Co. after former president Jack Rouse stepped down last month.

“We want to ensure that Music Hall will continue to be utilized as a performing arts venue. Our proposal supports the Mayor’s position that the City of Cincinnati should retain ownership of Music Hall and includes provisions to protect necessary funds for the project through both new market and historic tax credits,” Budig said.

Music Hall is owned by the city and managed by a nonprofit group.

The original proposal of the Revitalization Co., which consists of some of Cincinnati’s most important philanthropists and business leaders, had called for the purchase of the hall for $1, a $10 million contribution from the city toward deferred maintenance, and other conditions.

The project has been at a stalemate for the past month since Mayor Mark Mallory said adamantly that the city would not sell Music Hall to the nonprofit.

At the time, the Revitalization Co. cited major donors’ concerns about whether their money could be used for other purposes if the city retained control as the primary reason for the transfer of ownership.

The new lease proposal includes the city’s $10 million contribution. The infrastructure needs of the City of Cincinnati-owned facility include an estimated $40 to $50 million for updates and repairs to mechanical systems and some underlying structural issues

Music Hall’s resident companies, the Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras, and the May Festival, along with Cincinnati Arts Association and Society for the Preservation of Music Hall, said in the statement that they support the proposed long-term lease agreement.

The new proposal “is critical to the future of a treasured Cincinnati icon,” said Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra president Trey Devey.